Power failure kills iron lung lady

Dianne Odell watches her favourite soap opera at home in Jackson, Tennessee on February 14, 2007.Photo: AP

May 29, 2008 - 7:00AM

A woman in the US who spent nearly 60 years of her life in an
iron lung after being diagnosed with polio as a child died on
Wednesday after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her
breathing, her family said.

Dianne Odell, 61, had been confined to the two-metre-long
machine since she was stricken by polio at three-years-old.

Family members were unable to get an emergency generator working
for the iron lung after a power failure knocked out electricity to
the Odell family's residence near Jackson, Tennessee, about 130
kilometres northeast of Memphis, brother-in-law Will Beyer
said.

"We did everything we could do but we couldn't keep her
breathing," said Beyer, who was called to the home shortly after
the power failed. "Dianne had gotten a lot weaker over the past
several months and she just didn't have the strength to keep
going."

Captain Jerry Elston of the Madison County Sheriff's Department
said emergency crews were called to the scene, but could do little
to help.

Odell was afflicted with "bulbo-spinal" polio three years before
a polio vaccine was discovered and largely stopped the spread of
the crippling childhood disease.

She spent her life in the iron lung, cared for by her parents
and other family members. Though confined inside the 340-kilogram
apparatus, Odell managed to get a high school diploma, take college
courses and write a children's book.

The iron lung that she used was a cylindrical chamber with a
seal at the neck. She lay on her back in the device with only her
head exposed, and made eye contact with visitors using an angled
mirror above her head. The lung worked by producing positive and
negative pressure on the lungs that caused them to expand and
contract so that she could breathe.

Iron lungs were first used to sustain life in 1928, and were
largely replaced by positive-pressure airway ventilators in the
late 1950s. A spinal deformity from the polio made it impossible
for Odell to wear a more modern, portable breathing apparatus, so
she continued to use the older machine.

It is not known how many polio survivors still use iron lungs,
but Odell was believed to have used it for longer than most.

Odell was determined to live a full life - she earned a diploma
from Jackson High School as a home-bound student and an honorary
degree from Freed-Hardeman College. A voice-activated computer
allowed her to write a children's book, "Less Light," about Blinky,
a tiny star who dreams of becoming a wishing star.

In a 2001 interview with The Associated Press, she said she
wanted to show children, especially those with physical
disabilities, that they should never give up.

"It's amazing what you can accomplish if you see someone do the
same thing," she said.